In October a former ACORN worker, Anita Moncrief, told Heidelbaugh that she had been a â€œconfidential informant for several months to The New York Times reporter, Stephanie Strom.â€ The Bulletin story, penned by Michael Tremoglie, fleshes out the details:

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Ms. Moncrief had been providing Ms. Strom with information about ACORNâ€™s election activities. Ms. Strom had written several stories based on information Ms. Moncrief had given her.

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During her testimony, Ms. Heidelbaugh said Ms. Moncrief had told her The New York Times articles stopped when she revealed that the Obama presidential campaign had sent its maxed-out donor list to ACORNâ€™s Washington, D.C. office.

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Ms. Moncrief told Ms. Heidelbaugh the campaign had asked her and her boss to â€œreach out to the maxed-out donors and solicit donations from them for Get Out the Vote efforts to be run by ACORN.â€

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Ms. Heidelbaugh then told the congressional panel: “Upon learning this information and receiving the list of donors from the Obama campaign, Ms. Strom reported to Ms. Moncrief that her editors at The New York Times wanted her to kill the story because, and I quote, â€˜it was a game changer.â€™â€